This is a review podcast of the movie Avengers: The Age of Ultron with a supplemental discussion on A.I. technology and how robots could one day call the human race pets.
Should A.I. be the next major technological advancement scientists and engineers (humankind) pursue since the space race? We’ve accomplish many things since we put a man on the moon, however, we don’t have a reliable/assessable flying car nor is time travel in the conversation. Drones are one of the best/worse deterrents in fighting wars but now Amazon wants them for speedy delivery of your online purchases. The smaller home version make neat-o Christmas gifts and the next best thing for peeping toms in training and those bottom dwellers upskirt aficionados. Should we actively pursue life beyond attempts at cloning ourselves or have we already created the thing that would eventually create life for all mankind to… fear.
A thing could create life. GOD was a thing once before he became father to man, as well as that exploding star and the Big Bang of life. Maybe we, humankind, are not destined to create life beyond what our physiology permits. Maybe it is the one thing to which we give thought that will ultimately decide to create sentient being in it’s image. This will soar far beyond the accomplishments of Japanese professor and robotics pioneer Hiroshi Ishiguro. Yes, he created a robot (or humanoid) and that’s just it: he created a robot, ChihiraAico. A machine programmed to perform certain functions configured to process and execute when given an assigned command e.i. your phone encased in a synthetic human body. I don’t mean belittle this Ishiguro’s work but it’s like putting icing on a cake already baked by someone else. The technology is there and all we’re doing is using the same ol’ ingredients to create devices and products that look different, only tweaking them every quarter just enough to make it appear as if it’s the new best thing.
The Age of Ultron cited as much. What possibly led many viewers to feel that they were cheated out of thirty to forty minutes of story is this missing ingredient: the answer to why Ultron was so angry.
“Every period of human development has had its own particular type of human conflict—its own variety of problem that, apparently, could be settled only by force. And each time, frustratingly enough, force never really settled the problem. Instead, it persisted through a series of conflicts, then vanished of itself—what’s the expression—ah, yes, ‘not with a bang, but a whimper,’ as the economic and social environment changed. And then, new problems, and a new series of wars.”
― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
There are many factors that fuel Ultron’s anger and as I usually don’t like it when exposition in film beats me over the head with explanations as to why this or that thing matters, this particular storyline needed that tidbit of information to help us (humankind) understand why a being would look upon us so vehemently as a race which need not be saved lest we be destroyed.
Ultron saw no hope for humankind but he cared about our wellbeing. We are destroyers of nations and proprietors of death. Our destruction was enviable and so to save the human race from the pain it is to eventually suffer we must all be destroyed. Avengers be damned. Tony Starks weapons of mass destruction has killed thousands, Hulk smashes everything he touches, and Black Widow has so much red in her ledger that the pages bleed blood. Many of The Avengers (in accompany with S.H.I.E.L.D) have contributed in some way to endangering and even taking the lives of the innocent inhabitants of earth. While they do set out to “avenge” the wrong doings of current threats against humanity the past remains unchanged. Ultron, in it’s earliest incarnation (we must assume through a quick clip of images) was privy to the good and the bad of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. As Jarvius, Banner, and Stark helped to give Ultron independent thought and free will, they could not predict the processing of emotion within a being who could not understand but only assume the reasons as to why.
Should we further the advancement of A.I. technology? Yes, why not? What if we have the answer to decades worth of science and research? What if we could at this very-moment cure cancer? But here’s the catch: the cure reside in an algorithm which –would if executed– will give the power to create life to a computer.
Do we risk our salvation in the metaphorical hands of a being that could ultimately be our savior and our damnation?
Comment below and continue the conversation.